Commercial distribution and sale of viscous substances are as a rule performed with the substance in question contained in consumer adopted containers in the shape of cans, boxes, TetraPak®-type containers or bottles of different types. Most types of such containers are often in some way recloseable, e.g. by being provided with a lid for closing an opening in the container, or with a cap which can be tightly screwed to a threaded opening of the container and thereby sealing it. Different types of pourable substances that are packed in this way comprise beverages, oils, body and hair products, solvents, toners, corn flakes etc.
Consequently, capping is a frequently occurring procedure within the packaging industry, involving a cap being mounted to an opening in a container. This procedure is performed just after the moment when the containers are filled with their content, or at an earlier stage when the containers themselves are produced. A known method for capping of containers comprises the following steps, that generally are conducted in a repeated manner:                A cap is fed forward laying on a band, standing or rolling in a conduit, in a chute or the like;        A chuck picks the cap up, alternatively the cap is fed to the chuck;        The chuck lifts the cap and brings it to the opening on a container;        The chuck mounts the cap on the container, e.g. by pressure or by rotation.        
Capped containers are often manufactured in very large volumes, and therefore great effort is often made to increase production pace. A problem with known capping methods is that they comprise a number of time consuming steps, limiting the capping pace. Such steps include the step of moving the chuck from a place where the cap is picked up, to the place where it mounts the cap on the container. Such steps also include the step of waiting for a new cap until the gravity has worked on said cap and caused it to fall into position for being picked up.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,214 to Schultz discloses a chucking apparatus for applying caps to a threaded portion of a container at a constant torque. In a representative embodiment, caps are supplied to the apparatus by an inclined chute under the influence of gravity to a cylindrical rotating hollow cap guide which guide caps and also conveys rotating power to a chuck device, said chuck device being mounted on a lower portion of the cap guide. Caps are thus center fed to the chuck device, which device comprises a plurality of jaw members, each of which members are pivotable to a cap gripping position. A resilient member is arranged to engage the jaw members in response to fluid pressure, causing the jaw members to pivot to the cap gripping position. The chuck device is subsequently rotated in order to screw the cap gripped thereby onto a container. The required movement of the chuck device is accomplished by lowering the chuck or raising the container or by a combination of both methods.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,824,660 to Darner discloses a mechanism for capping bottles, particularly milk bottles. In an embodiment the mechanism is central fed with caps of the press-on type. The caps form a pile inside the mechanism. The mechanism also comprises spiral rods, which, when the mechanism is pressed down, rotates, and sharp edges of cams mounted at the lower end of said spiral rods, separates the lowermost cap from the caps in the rest of the pile. Comprised are also plungers that will press the bottle cap down into a neck of the bottle.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,233,469 to Heath discloses a machine for applying caps. In one embodiment caps are applied to receptacle mouths and the machine is spinning or curling the same thereon by means of a rotary cap spinning or curling device. The caps are arranged in a vertical stack or column feeding downwardly by gravity through a head of the machine and aligned with an axis of rotation of said spinning device.
U.S. Pat. No. 982,231 to Barry discloses a bottle capping machine of a manual lever-operated type, comprising a magazine tube, a receptacle holder and a capping device mounted on a carrier.
U.S. Pat. No. 1495,283 to Chulin et al discloses a screw-lid fitting device for jars comprising a lid receiver with folding flap at top of hollow chuck with lid stops round bottom. When the chuck comes down, upper arms of twin-arm levers disengage from endface of a cylinder. A spring pulls the lower arms of said levers towards each other, gripping the lid and unscrews/screws the lid as the chuck rotates.
An object of the present invention is to provide a capping mechanism capable of providing an increased capping rate compared to the prior art techniques. Furthermore, it is an object to provide a capping mechanism which can be used for various different sorts of containers and caps.